Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Shocking Audio Shows Hunter Biden BEGGING For Money From Family, plus Gas Prices Soaring Under Govt. Regulations.

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Shocking Audio Shows Hunter Biden BEGGING For Money From Family, plus Gas Prices Soaring Under Govt. Regulations. · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Big breaking news and the Hunter Biden fiasco with the
0:05
Speaker 1: Biden family. We're gonna have that for you in just
0:08
Speaker 1: a moment. Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz and
0:12
Speaker 1: I am the new co host, Ben Ferguson here with
0:15
Speaker 1: you today. We have a lot to talk about, Senator
0:18
Speaker 1: obviously in the in the news world, but this is
0:20
Speaker 1: a moment that is an honor for me. I am
0:23
Speaker 1: beyond excited to get to co host your podcast with
0:27
Speaker 1: you and do this with Premiere Networks with iHeart. We're
0:32
Speaker 1: going to be expanding for everyone listening to three days
0:36
Speaker 1: a week, which is going to be so much fun
0:38
Speaker 1: I think for the Verdict audience here and something that's
0:42
Speaker 1: been important to you to be able to get to
0:44
Speaker 1: expand this and reach more people. Well, Ben, that's exactly right.
0:48
Speaker 1: And the expansion is going to change the format a
0:50
Speaker 1: little bit in that two of the three are going
0:53
Speaker 1: to be audio podcasts, so we're going to do video
0:55
Speaker 1: where the objectives is going to be to continue to
0:57
Speaker 1: do video once a week, but two of us, including
1:00
Speaker 1: obviously this one, are going to be audio only and
1:03
Speaker 1: that's one of the ways we're going to expand the
1:05
Speaker 1: coverage and hopefully connect with a lot more folks that
1:09
Speaker 1: are looking for the inside scoop, looking to understand what
1:13
Speaker 1: actually is happening and what it means. You know, It's
1:16
Speaker 1: so I think important now for us to be able
1:18
Speaker 1: to go around the media and go directly to the audience,
1:22
Speaker 1: which is I think one of the reasons why your
1:24
Speaker 1: podcast has exploded and why it made sense to expand
1:27
Speaker 1: it to three days a week. And you and I
1:30
Speaker 1: are so much aligned, I think, with our goal and
1:34
Speaker 1: our objective. I started in radio for people that don't
1:38
Speaker 1: know me when I was twelve years old. It was
1:40
Speaker 1: my mission field. I started in TV on Bill O'Reilly's
1:44
Speaker 1: show on Fox when I was seventeen years old and
1:47
Speaker 1: have been doing TV and radio ever since. And I
1:50
Speaker 1: have my own podcast, my own national syndicated show, and
1:54
Speaker 1: it's you and I have that same mission, which is,
1:57
Speaker 1: I think, to change hearts and minds of a mayor
2:00
Speaker 1: kins with facts and the real story behind some of
2:04
Speaker 1: these the ridiculous headlines and the propaganda of the left.
2:07
Speaker 1: I jokingly say that, you know, my job is to
2:10
Speaker 1: make liberals go insane with facts and figures each and
2:13
Speaker 1: every day. And I love my job because for me,
2:16
Speaker 1: this is my mission field very much the same way
2:19
Speaker 1: I think you believe God put you on earth to
2:21
Speaker 1: stand up for values, traditional values, for the sanctity of life,
2:25
Speaker 1: for the Constitution, for the Second Amendment, part of the
2:27
Speaker 1: reason why you obviously went to law school. Well, I
2:30
Speaker 1: will say the only problem with that that that mission
2:32
Speaker 1: there is I think liberals start out insane, and so
2:35
Speaker 1: really the only thing you're doing in the exposing their
2:38
Speaker 1: mental illness. I don't know if you happen to see
2:42
Speaker 1: yesterday on Twitter the video of this this crazy lady
2:47
Speaker 1: who has stolen money from two little kids in their
2:50
Speaker 1: lemonade stand and she's wearing a mask and the father
2:55
Speaker 1: is asking her please give back the money to my children,
2:59
Speaker 1: and this lady is just berating him. But you are
3:02
Speaker 1: endangering us because these children are selling selling lemonade, and
3:06
Speaker 1: you shouldn't be allowed to sell lemonade, and you need masks.
3:09
Speaker 1: And it was a level of COVID paranoia that was
3:12
Speaker 1: just you watched it, and it was interesting, Ay, she
3:15
Speaker 1: wasn't taking it that this was not she believed this
3:19
Speaker 1: in the core. You know, if they had been injecting
3:23
Speaker 1: a bola into the neighborhood cats, she would not be
3:26
Speaker 1: more worked up, but be she felt an absolute entitlement.
3:29
Speaker 1: I'm going to take these children lemonade stand money, and
3:32
Speaker 1: at the end of it, she gets the money back
3:34
Speaker 1: because he very calmly demands that she do so. And
3:36
Speaker 1: then she knocks the whole stand over and knocks the
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Speaker 1: lemonade over, and it gets a mental illness at that
3:42
Speaker 1: point when you think, as a busybody that you have
3:46
Speaker 1: the right to control somebody else and if they don't
3:49
Speaker 1: comply with your paranoia that then you can use force
3:53
Speaker 1: to force them to comply. You've done this and seen
3:56
Speaker 1: this on college campuses. You do a ton of college
3:58
Speaker 1: campus speaking. I do some of as well, And even
4:01
Speaker 1: in the college campus world, we've seen these massive, I
4:04
Speaker 1: think changes with just personalities. Where it used to be
4:08
Speaker 1: you could go in and you could have a grand
4:10
Speaker 1: debate and there would be people that would prepare right
4:14
Speaker 1: look forward to the opportunity to question you or to
4:16
Speaker 1: question me on a certain topic or issue. And now
4:20
Speaker 1: there is no longer a grand debate. With many on
4:22
Speaker 1: the left, it's just scream at you and tell you
4:24
Speaker 1: a name, call you're big at racist, homophobes, NFO. The
4:27
Speaker 1: list goes on and on and on and on on,
4:29
Speaker 1: and they just go, you know, now we're domestic terrorists.
4:32
Speaker 1: Now we are we are a cult. We're a domestic
4:35
Speaker 1: terrorists organization that is a threat to democracy. We see
4:38
Speaker 1: Democrats running on that, doubling down, and many of these
4:41
Speaker 1: laces we saw in the Senate race in Ohio where
4:45
Speaker 1: they're doubling down the Democrats. They're saying that they believe
4:48
Speaker 1: that if you support conservatives people like the MAGA movement,
4:51
Speaker 1: that you are a threat to our nation and should
4:54
Speaker 1: be treated like you are a domestic terrorists organization no
4:57
Speaker 1: different than al Qaeda. Well look, President called half the
5:01
Speaker 1: country fascist or semi fascist. I will say though, that
5:04
Speaker 1: this podcast so far has managed to cut through some
5:07
Speaker 1: of that, and that the campus tour, as we've done,
5:10
Speaker 1: you know, we've seen a number of liberal students come
5:13
Speaker 1: and show up, and they come to the front of
5:15
Speaker 1: the line and they ask their questions, and we've had
5:18
Speaker 1: very little We had at University of Wisconsin Madison, on
5:22
Speaker 1: one leftist kind of run up and screamed fu and
5:24
Speaker 1: then scamper off and I kind of chuckled the courage
5:29
Speaker 1: of your convictions. But you know, beyond that, we have
5:31
Speaker 1: not had the rudeness of instability. That's a good thing.
5:35
Speaker 1: So but all right, there's a lot of breaking news.
5:37
Speaker 1: But before we do that, I want to drill down
5:40
Speaker 1: a little bit. A lot of the Verdict listeners I
5:43
Speaker 1: assume know who you are, have seen you on TV,
5:45
Speaker 1: have listened to you on radio or your podcast, But
5:47
Speaker 1: there only some of the Verdict listeners who don't know you.
5:51
Speaker 1: You and I go back a decade from when I
5:54
Speaker 1: first ran First Sented. I think we met back in
5:56
Speaker 1: twenty eleven, and your story is pretty remarkable, and so
6:00
Speaker 1: I just want to take a minute to kind of
6:02
Speaker 1: walk folks through your history. Now. You kind of casually
6:06
Speaker 1: mentioned that that you started on radio when you were twelve,
6:10
Speaker 1: which is a pretty crazy and wild thing. Yeah, Ben,
6:14
Speaker 1: maybe tell the story of like how the heck that happened,
6:17
Speaker 1: because most twelve year olds don't don't get on the radio.
6:20
Speaker 1: You know, my life took an interesting turn, and I'll
6:25
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about myself so people know kind
6:28
Speaker 1: of what got me to do what I'm doing now.
6:32
Speaker 1: We were hit when I was very young by a
6:34
Speaker 1: drunk driver, and that drunk driver died, and thank goodness,
6:38
Speaker 1: what we lived. I grew up in a family that
6:41
Speaker 1: was law enforcement, that my dad was a police officer.
6:45
Speaker 1: When when actually we were hit by that drunk driver,
6:47
Speaker 1: he wasn't with us. It was my mom and my
6:49
Speaker 1: sister and I And that gave me, I think, an
6:52
Speaker 1: instant kind of life purpose at a very young age,
6:54
Speaker 1: because I realized how quick life could be taken away,
6:58
Speaker 1: and I paid attention to stuff. I was home when
7:02
Speaker 1: that car accident. I was like five years old. I
7:06
Speaker 1: was five, but it was my first vivid memory because
7:09
Speaker 1: I remember um the impact. I remember my mom. You know,
7:13
Speaker 1: we all had our seat belts on, but we had
7:15
Speaker 1: the lap seat belts. They didn't in the back seat
7:17
Speaker 1: have yet those shoulder straps. And the whiplash broke my
7:21
Speaker 1: sister's collar bone from the snap back of the impact
7:24
Speaker 1: of the wreck. He hit us going over a hundred
7:26
Speaker 1: and he didn't have a seat belt on. He went
7:28
Speaker 1: through the passenger window of his car as he turned sideways.
7:32
Speaker 1: At the very last moment, we hit his passenger door
7:35
Speaker 1: and he hit our windshield, and I remember getting out
7:37
Speaker 1: of the car and my mom's head had hit the
7:40
Speaker 1: windshield and there was blood coming down her face, and
7:42
Speaker 1: I just wanted to get to my mom, and I
7:44
Speaker 1: remember running out of the back door and I couldn't
7:47
Speaker 1: I had to walk over his body and I couldn't
7:49
Speaker 1: get her door open. And a man came along. To
7:53
Speaker 1: this day, I still think it was God's intervention, and
7:57
Speaker 1: he said he grabbed me and took me the back
8:00
Speaker 1: of the car and he said, I've got this, and
8:01
Speaker 1: he got my sister out and he got my mom out,
8:03
Speaker 1: and then they rushed us all to the hospitals and
8:05
Speaker 1: even separate us, and I'm you know, my sister and
8:07
Speaker 1: I went to the children's hospital and she went to
8:10
Speaker 1: the adult the met the trauma center. And that moment
8:15
Speaker 1: was a moment where I think I realized and didn't
8:18
Speaker 1: take for granted life. And having that moment was a
8:22
Speaker 1: blessing in disguise because it made me, at a very
8:25
Speaker 1: young age, realize how important it was to stand up
8:28
Speaker 1: against right and wrong. My dad laughs to this day
8:30
Speaker 1: that when I was a little kid after that, he
8:32
Speaker 1: was a police officer and we would be in Kroger
8:34
Speaker 1: and I would see somebody senator buying beer and I
8:37
Speaker 1: would tell my dad, like, I need you to Dad,
8:39
Speaker 1: arrest him. Because I was very literal, I didn't understand.
8:41
Speaker 1: You know, I saw a beer and thought that guy's
8:43
Speaker 1: gonna drink it and they're gonna hit my car and
8:44
Speaker 1: I'm gonna die. And my dad was he had to
8:49
Speaker 1: explain to me, like laws and I can't arrest him
8:52
Speaker 1: for buying beer. It's okay to buy beer. And he
8:54
Speaker 1: talked about consumption. He talked about what the law says
8:57
Speaker 1: and how you can't get behind the wheel if you've
8:59
Speaker 1: been drinking in this blood alcoho level, which back then
9:01
Speaker 1: was a one point zero before they changed it to
9:04
Speaker 1: zero point eight. And so that had that impact where
9:09
Speaker 1: I was paying attention, I think to more things because
9:11
Speaker 1: I wanted to understand how this country worked and how
9:13
Speaker 1: laws worked. So you fast forward to eleven, twelve years old.
9:17
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in the back of the blue four aerostarred
9:20
Speaker 1: van and that was one ugly van by the way
9:23
Speaker 1: that Ford made, and my mom was listening to talk radio.
9:27
Speaker 1: Now this is before talk radio became more conservative. This
9:30
Speaker 1: is before Hannity or back right. It was Limba just
9:34
Speaker 1: kind of come onto the scene. But a lot of
9:36
Speaker 1: news talk stations had liberal shows and conservative shows, and
9:39
Speaker 1: there was a liberal host, a city council member in
9:42
Speaker 1: my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. And in that in my hometown,
9:46
Speaker 1: she was screaming about the school lunch program and the
9:49
Speaker 1: contract with America in nineteen ninety four. And this contract
9:55
Speaker 1: there was part of it was a school lunch program.
9:57
Speaker 1: And you may remember this, Richard Gephart hold up a
10:01
Speaker 1: bottle of ketchup and he said, is this what conservatives
10:06
Speaker 1: are going to call a vegetable? And she continues to
10:09
Speaker 1: say that Republicans are going to starve kids and it
10:11
Speaker 1: was going to be their only hot meal a day gift.
10:15
Speaker 1: Part mean the cash up or himself? Yeah right exactly,
10:18
Speaker 1: yeah bingo, yeah, exactly exactly. And so I'm in the backseat.
10:24
Speaker 1: My mom's school teacher, right, and then she's teaching us homeschool,
10:27
Speaker 1: and I said, Mom, there's no way that anyone would
10:29
Speaker 1: do that to children, and she immediately perked up. Right,
10:33
Speaker 1: this is a you know, a school mom's dream. She's like, well, honey,
10:37
Speaker 1: how do you know that. I'm like, mom, I can't
10:39
Speaker 1: think that any adult would take away a child's lunch.
10:42
Speaker 1: And she said, well, why don't you call our congressman
10:46
Speaker 1: and get a copy of the bill and you can
10:47
Speaker 1: read it I'll help you read it and you can
10:50
Speaker 1: see if you're right. So I did. I called Ed Bryant,
10:53
Speaker 1: who was our congressman at the time. He facts the
10:56
Speaker 1: bill to my dad's facts machine with that old roller
10:58
Speaker 1: facts paper right that falls on the ground. You have
11:01
Speaker 1: to put it back in order. And I read the bill,
11:03
Speaker 1: and sure enough, she lied to her audience, and I
11:06
Speaker 1: I found out that the Republicans wanted to increase school
11:10
Speaker 1: lunch funding by three point seven percent and Republicans wanted
11:13
Speaker 1: to increase it by like four point three percent, and
11:16
Speaker 1: the Democrats were calling the difference in their two numbers
11:20
Speaker 1: the cut, even though both were clearly increasing school lunch funding.
11:24
Speaker 1: And I called her and we got into this big
11:27
Speaker 1: debate and I said to her. She was yelling at me,
11:29
Speaker 1: and I said, ma'am, I said, have you read the bill?
11:32
Speaker 1: And she said, well, no one reads the bills. And
11:34
Speaker 1: I said, well I did, and maybe you should before
11:36
Speaker 1: you go on the radio and lie to people. And
11:39
Speaker 1: it just blew up another show. It was. It was
11:42
Speaker 1: one of those moments. It just happened. And I read
11:44
Speaker 1: her the bill on the air and told her why
11:46
Speaker 1: she was wrong, and I was great. At one point
11:49
Speaker 1: does she say, wait a second, are you twelve? Like like,
11:51
Speaker 1: how does that come out? My voice had not changed yet.
11:55
Speaker 1: It was pretty clear that I would, you know, I had.
11:59
Speaker 1: I had not yet at the full puberty yet, and
12:01
Speaker 1: so it was, you know, the high, little squeaky kid voice.
12:04
Speaker 1: And she was like, how old are you? I mean,
12:06
Speaker 1: she's yelling at me and I'm like twelve years old.
12:08
Speaker 1: I said, ma'am, I'm twelve. And so this other show
12:11
Speaker 1: that came on the afternoons heard this call and they
12:15
Speaker 1: went on the radio and drive time at like five
12:17
Speaker 1: o'clock and they played the phone call and they said,
12:19
Speaker 1: whoever this kid is, if anyone knows who ben is,
12:23
Speaker 1: please tell them we're talking about and we want to
12:25
Speaker 1: talk to him on the radio. So my mom and
12:26
Speaker 1: dad's home phone starts ringing from friends that are listening.
12:30
Speaker 1: They're like, they're talking about Benjamin on the radio. And
12:33
Speaker 1: so I called in and they put me on the
12:35
Speaker 1: air and they're like asking me about the bill and
12:37
Speaker 1: reading the bill and just they were kind of enamored
12:39
Speaker 1: with this idea of a young person getting involved. And
12:42
Speaker 1: they're like, have you ever seen a radio studio? And
12:44
Speaker 1: I was like, no, ma'am, no sir. And they were like, well,
12:46
Speaker 1: put your mom on the phone and this is all
12:48
Speaker 1: live on the air. And I hand the phone back
12:51
Speaker 1: to my mom. Now, can you bring your son down
12:53
Speaker 1: here tomorrow and let him see the studio. My mom's
12:54
Speaker 1: like sure, So I go down there. They're gonna have
12:56
Speaker 1: me as a guest for ten minutes, and the first
12:59
Speaker 1: break we went to. One of the hosts looks at
13:01
Speaker 1: me and she goes, you're dying to talk, aren't you.
13:02
Speaker 1: I said yes, ma'am, and she goes, next time you
13:04
Speaker 1: have something important to say, raise your hands. So I
13:06
Speaker 1: did and I was on for an hour and a half.
13:09
Speaker 1: The phone lines were jammed and they're like, this is weird.
13:12
Speaker 1: Can you come back tomorrow? I was like, after as
13:14
Speaker 1: my parents, So my parents drive me back down the
13:16
Speaker 1: next day. I'm on for another hour. They had me
13:19
Speaker 1: come back a week later, and then literally they hired
13:21
Speaker 1: me a week after that at four twenty five an
13:23
Speaker 1: hour minimum wage at the time, and I've been doing
13:28
Speaker 1: radio ever since. Fell in love with it because radio,
13:30
Speaker 1: for a younger person, people didn't judge you based on
13:34
Speaker 1: what they saw right your age. It didn't look at
13:36
Speaker 1: you and think you don't. You can't have an opinion
13:39
Speaker 1: because you could hide behind the microphone and they would
13:42
Speaker 1: listen to what you said. And it was a great equalizer.
13:44
Speaker 1: And once I realized that I could be judged by
13:47
Speaker 1: the content of what I was saying and not because
13:50
Speaker 1: of how babyface I looked, I knew this was what
13:53
Speaker 1: I was going to do, probably for the rest of
13:55
Speaker 1: my life. And so you went from there to going
13:58
Speaker 1: on TV. Yeah, I was, how did that happen? I
14:02
Speaker 1: was so I was. I did a hit that was
14:06
Speaker 1: like a news piece that happened to show up. I
14:08
Speaker 1: think it was on CNN, and it was about getting
14:12
Speaker 1: out the vote and young people voting. And that was
14:14
Speaker 1: right when MTV was doing Rock the Vote and Bill
14:18
Speaker 1: O'Reilly had just come over to Fox News channel had
14:20
Speaker 1: just launched, and there was a guy from Memphis, Tennessee,
14:24
Speaker 1: who was I think his producer at the time, and
14:29
Speaker 1: called me and said, hey, he wants to have you on.
14:32
Speaker 1: Um there's this new channel called Fox News now on
14:35
Speaker 1: cable in Memphis. Fox News wasn't even available yet, so
14:39
Speaker 1: their pitched to me and Bill O'Reilly and I laugh
14:41
Speaker 1: about this every time we see each other. When he
14:43
Speaker 1: comes out with a new book and you know, come
14:45
Speaker 1: on my show. And we always laugh because the pitch
14:48
Speaker 1: senator was was, Hey, we have this host who's the
14:52
Speaker 1: former host of Inside Edition, and he'd really like to
14:56
Speaker 1: have you on a show. And so I did the show.
14:59
Speaker 1: We sparred, we fought, it went, it went really well,
15:02
Speaker 1: and then that was the hit. That was it. They
15:04
Speaker 1: started having me back on a regular basis, and I
15:06
Speaker 1: started doing other shows at Fox and Shepherd Smith and
15:09
Speaker 1: Gibson show back when he was there. I mean, we're
15:11
Speaker 1: talking about the old lineup, no cavudo, and it took
15:14
Speaker 1: that one hit with the guy who used to host
15:17
Speaker 1: Inside Edition, as they described it. And I remember doing
15:19
Speaker 1: the show and no one could watch it. Right, your
15:22
Speaker 1: parents are proud of you. You're seventeen. They want to
15:24
Speaker 1: see it because no one could see it, and so
15:26
Speaker 1: they fed ax me a VHS no, a beta tape.
15:29
Speaker 1: It was a beta tape of the appearance. So we
15:31
Speaker 1: had to find a friend who had a beta machine
15:34
Speaker 1: so we could even watch it. Wow. And by the way,
15:36
Speaker 1: for a lot of our podcast listeners, you may not
15:39
Speaker 1: know what a beta tape is. You know, the very
15:43
Speaker 1: beginning of being able to play movies at home. You
15:47
Speaker 1: had two different types. You had a VHS cassette and
15:51
Speaker 1: you had Beta, which was son of Sony Beta Max,
15:54
Speaker 1: and they were competing size and Beta was a little
15:56
Speaker 1: bit smaller, and VHS went out. It was a battle
15:59
Speaker 1: to see who would be the market dominant, and Beta
16:01
Speaker 1: got crushed and went away. So it's you have to
16:04
Speaker 1: be at a certain age to know what the heck
16:06
Speaker 1: of Beta Max or a beta is. And then that
16:09
Speaker 1: later became DVDs, and then that later became Blu rays.
16:12
Speaker 1: And now you know, our kids probably won't know what
16:14
Speaker 1: DVDs or Blu rays are because it'll all be streaming
16:17
Speaker 1: and who knows, it'll be virtual in about ten minutes.
16:19
Speaker 1: Oh exactly. It's the world has changed, and the and
16:22
Speaker 1: the ability to reach people, it's changed drastically over the
16:26
Speaker 1: last time. I remember when I started radio, we had
16:28
Speaker 1: the eight tracks and you would hit the button and
16:31
Speaker 1: the eight track would play during the commercial breaks. When
16:34
Speaker 1: I started, I mean I was twelve, and then they
16:35
Speaker 1: gave you a big magnet that you would demagnetize the
16:39
Speaker 1: tape so you could rerecord over it. That's how long
16:42
Speaker 1: I've been in this business. So okay, so you're doing radio,
16:46
Speaker 1: you're doing TV, you're a teenager. You go off to
16:49
Speaker 1: college at Old Miss on a tennis scholarship. Now, I
16:52
Speaker 1: guess you you're a pretty hardcore tennis player. Yeah. I
16:55
Speaker 1: started playing tennis. My aunt was a racquetball player, and
17:00
Speaker 1: so she was sponsored and she used to send Ectlon
17:04
Speaker 1: racquetball rackets to me for holidays and I would go play.
17:08
Speaker 1: And this tennis coach walked up to me as he
17:10
Speaker 1: saw me hitting on a racquetball court, and he's like,
17:12
Speaker 1: hey man, why don't you play a sport that other
17:15
Speaker 1: people actually play? And he goes, why don't you try tennis?
17:19
Speaker 1: And I was like okay, And so I went out
17:21
Speaker 1: and hit a few balls with him, and he saw
17:23
Speaker 1: that I had, I guess, you know, some talent and
17:26
Speaker 1: he was like all right, he was like, you need
17:29
Speaker 1: probably get into tennis clinic. And so I started fell
17:33
Speaker 1: in love with a game understood very quickly. My parents
17:36
Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of resources, and I knew I
17:39
Speaker 1: needed a scholarship to go to college and tennis was
17:42
Speaker 1: gonna be my way to pull that off. And I
17:45
Speaker 1: played in college and absolutely fell in love with the game.
17:48
Speaker 1: Got to see the world and play overseas and meet
17:51
Speaker 1: really interesting and cool people, and you know this playing
17:54
Speaker 1: you put your basketball guy obviously, And I got to
17:57
Speaker 1: play in high school and just have that team sport
18:01
Speaker 1: and taking a little bit of a break from the
18:03
Speaker 1: politics and the radio and TV. And I would still
18:06
Speaker 1: drive back and forth from Old Miss. I'd still fill
18:08
Speaker 1: in on radio for guys like Michael Reagan, Ronald's son
18:11
Speaker 1: and Gee Gordon Lyddie, Oliver North and some others like that.
18:14
Speaker 1: So I was able to keep my hand in the
18:17
Speaker 1: political world. But having that break and just to be
18:20
Speaker 1: a college student and a college athlete is something I
18:23
Speaker 1: tell kids all the time. If you're passionate about sport
18:26
Speaker 1: and you get to play, play it to the highest level.
18:29
Speaker 1: I've never talked to anybody that regretted playing in college.
18:33
Speaker 1: I have a lot of friends that regretted not playing
18:37
Speaker 1: in college because maybe they didn't get a scholarship to
18:40
Speaker 1: the university they wanted to go to, so they're like,
18:42
Speaker 1: all right, well I'll just give up on the dream.
18:44
Speaker 1: And almost I mean, I don't know anybody that's ever
18:46
Speaker 1: told me they you know, if you have that ability
18:48
Speaker 1: to play, I think at that level you run with
18:51
Speaker 1: it and you do it because you'll never forget those
18:54
Speaker 1: moments with those teammates. And I think there's also something
18:57
Speaker 1: cool about sports, like there's a very small window senator,
19:00
Speaker 1: you know this where you can get to play it,
19:03
Speaker 1: and it's based on age. At the highest level. It's
19:06
Speaker 1: so fun to keep playing later in life. But when
19:09
Speaker 1: you get to play at peak physical condition at that
19:13
Speaker 1: age where you can maximize your potential, it's a very
19:16
Speaker 1: small window. And getting to play at that level was
19:19
Speaker 1: was something if I could go back and do it again,
19:21
Speaker 1: I'd do it all over again. Well, and Ben and
19:24
Speaker 1: you had size and speed and strength and talent, all
19:29
Speaker 1: things sadly I was lacking. So so you know, you
19:32
Speaker 1: very kindly threw threw me a bone of Oh, you're
19:34
Speaker 1: a basketball player. I was a mediocre high school player,
19:37
Speaker 1: and I still play today, and I'd say I'm still
19:40
Speaker 1: right about the level of a mediocre high school player.
19:43
Speaker 1: Um So, so you know, it was a very different
19:45
Speaker 1: experience from from being a varsity athlete at a major
19:51
Speaker 1: university and competing at the top level. But but one
19:54
Speaker 1: of the things I think is interesting, So you're you're
19:57
Speaker 1: a varsity athlete, you're you're in a fraterner. You're a
20:00
Speaker 1: big man on campus. But then you're also jumping on
20:03
Speaker 1: airplanes and flying to New York City and going on
20:06
Speaker 1: TV and on Fox at the same time. What was
20:09
Speaker 1: that Like it was you know back then, um when
20:12
Speaker 1: I was in college, So it was college two thousand
20:14
Speaker 1: and two thousand and four. Satellite. You know how we
20:17
Speaker 1: can do TV now you just grab that. You know,
20:20
Speaker 1: they do it by satellite. The cost is very inexpensive
20:23
Speaker 1: now compared to what it was in two thousand. So
20:25
Speaker 1: if you were going to do TV, you got on
20:27
Speaker 1: a plane and I would literally run, you know, haul
20:30
Speaker 1: it from Oxford, Mississippi, to Memphis, get on a plane,
20:33
Speaker 1: fly to New York to do TV and then come back.
20:37
Speaker 1: And then you know, people around campus figured it out right,
20:40
Speaker 1: like this is weird. You're doing TV, but you're also
20:43
Speaker 1: you know, hanging out at lunch, and it was it
20:46
Speaker 1: was pretty funny, you know, it was it was hilarious
20:50
Speaker 1: to see their reaction of like, hold on a second,
20:52
Speaker 1: you're the same guy that's screaming on Saturdays at the
20:56
Speaker 1: football game and Sunday morning you're doing the Sunday morning
21:00
Speaker 1: talk shows. This is weird, And I was lucky I
21:04
Speaker 1: got to experience both of the exact same time. And
21:07
Speaker 1: I also it turned into me seeing bias at the
21:13
Speaker 1: first first level I've ever seen bias from adults, you know,
21:18
Speaker 1: from people in positions of power against young people. And
21:23
Speaker 1: that was the most shocking. I almost failed a class.
21:27
Speaker 1: And you're gonna laugh when I tell you which class
21:29
Speaker 1: I failed. It was a four hundred level class and
21:34
Speaker 1: it was literally entitled Editorial and opinion writing. If there
21:39
Speaker 1: is any class editor that I should pass, it would
21:45
Speaker 1: be editorial and opinion writing. And I had this professor
21:50
Speaker 1: those who can do those who can't teach, Oh, so
21:54
Speaker 1: tell me. I assumed the professor was some wild eyed leftist, oh,
21:59
Speaker 1: hardcore left. And I walked in the first day. He
22:03
Speaker 1: knew exactly who I was, He knew exactly what I did.
22:08
Speaker 1: And it was my senior year and I would had
22:11
Speaker 1: just signed a book deal with William Morrow Harper Collins
22:14
Speaker 1: to write a book, and so it had been written
22:17
Speaker 1: about it was you know, it is obviously a big
22:19
Speaker 1: deal writing your first, you know, big book. And I
22:22
Speaker 1: was doing a ton of TV then and I walked
22:25
Speaker 1: in and it was game on and he would do
22:28
Speaker 1: entire lectures, basically yelling directly at me in the class. Well,
22:32
Speaker 1: this class had three papers that you wrote that were
22:36
Speaker 1: a third a third to thirty year grade. Well, if
22:39
Speaker 1: you felt one of them, do the math. It's not good.
22:42
Speaker 1: So you're gonna it's gonna be bad. And so I
22:44
Speaker 1: did my first again editorial and opinion writing. I did
22:48
Speaker 1: my first piece, and he gave me an f and
22:51
Speaker 1: I went to the head of the department and I said, now,
22:55
Speaker 1: was your first piece. Was it an editorial or was
22:58
Speaker 1: it writing about editorial? Write? No, it was like literally
23:01
Speaker 1: write an editor like an opinion piece. So I think
23:04
Speaker 1: I wrote about the Second Amendment and he failed me,
23:07
Speaker 1: and it looked like he got hammered and then spilled
23:11
Speaker 1: the red ink. I've never seen more red ink and
23:14
Speaker 1: writing on a paper. And so I went to the
23:17
Speaker 1: head of the department and I was like, look like,
23:19
Speaker 1: it's obvious this dude has it out for me. And
23:21
Speaker 1: they're like, well, he's tenured, and he's a senior, he's
23:23
Speaker 1: been here, he's a premier. He's written for all of
23:25
Speaker 1: these magazines and newspapers, and you know, I can't overrule him.
23:29
Speaker 1: And I'm like, all right, fine, and I know what's
23:31
Speaker 1: gonna come. I'm gonna write the second one. He's gonna
23:33
Speaker 1: fail me. Second one comes. Sure enough, he gives me
23:35
Speaker 1: a D. And I went back and I'm like, to
23:38
Speaker 1: the head of the department, I said, okay. I said, now,
23:42
Speaker 1: now you're really screwing with my life. Like I have
23:44
Speaker 1: to have this class to graduate. It's if this grade stands,
23:50
Speaker 1: I'm gonna fail the class, which means i'd have to
23:53
Speaker 1: come back and take this class in another semester. I'm
23:56
Speaker 1: gonna be gone. I'm going to the Bush campaign like
23:58
Speaker 1: I'm out of here and this could really screw up
24:01
Speaker 1: my life. And they're like, I'm sorry. So I ended
24:03
Speaker 1: up going to the chancellor of the university and he
24:07
Speaker 1: said there was nothing he could do, and I said,
24:09
Speaker 1: all right, well, I just want to give you a
24:10
Speaker 1: heads up. I'm gonna go on. I think it was
24:12
Speaker 1: on Fox, and I said, I'm going to tell my story.
24:15
Speaker 1: And then the whole thing changed. Senator will hold on
24:18
Speaker 1: a second, let's see I can come of a compromise, said, well, ho,
24:21
Speaker 1: you just told me. You just told me a second
24:23
Speaker 1: ago you can't compromise, and that you're just got to
24:27
Speaker 1: stand with this decision because well, what are you proposing.
24:29
Speaker 1: I said, take my name off the papers, given a
24:31
Speaker 1: three different professors in three different departments, and let them
24:36
Speaker 1: grade it, and if they failed me, I'll accept the grades.
24:39
Speaker 1: And they all came back with a's. And that changed it.
24:42
Speaker 1: But that was the moment that I really was. I
24:45
Speaker 1: became angry, and I was like, I've got to keep
24:47
Speaker 1: doing this because what if you didn't have that threat
24:50
Speaker 1: of being able to expose them on national TV? If otherwise,
24:54
Speaker 1: and this is what's happening, I think on college campuses,
24:56
Speaker 1: as so many kids now are health hostage, they can't
25:00
Speaker 1: speak out, they stay quiet, they sit on their hands,
25:03
Speaker 1: they write what they think these professors want them to say,
25:06
Speaker 1: instead of having a grand debate. And that's where we've
25:09
Speaker 1: I think, how we've gotten to the point where we
25:10
Speaker 1: are in this country right now where it's basically indoctrination,
25:14
Speaker 1: no longer a grand debate. That's exactly right, and that's
25:17
Speaker 1: why verdickt is something very very different. Look. I think
25:21
Speaker 1: we are going to have a fun and amazing time
25:25
Speaker 1: doing this show together, doing a three days a week now,
25:28
Speaker 1: doing it regularly so that folks can count on it
25:32
Speaker 1: to come out, and I think it's gonna be it's
25:34
Speaker 1: gonna be a different vibe than Michael and I had.
25:37
Speaker 1: Michael as a sort of Yale academic brought brought a
25:43
Speaker 1: very kind of conservative Catholic vibe that was fun, and
25:46
Speaker 1: I think you and I have a very different vibe
25:47
Speaker 1: that it's going to be interesting and engaging and help
25:50
Speaker 1: help get really to the bottom of the issues that
25:53
Speaker 1: are happening right now. And I'm going to give people updates.
25:55
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to work on your tennis game.
25:57
Speaker 1: People don't know this yet, but we're gonna we're gonna
25:59
Speaker 1: secretly prepare air you for greatness in the tennis World's
26:02
Speaker 1: that's part of that's part of my new mission Field Senator.
26:06
Speaker 1: We gotta get that elbow right and then and then
26:08
Speaker 1: I promise we're not going to lose if we play
26:10
Speaker 1: doubles together. So I actually I have tennis elbow, which
26:14
Speaker 1: Ben knows, and given how lousy my tennis game is,
26:17
Speaker 1: I don't even deserve to have tennis elbo like like
26:19
Speaker 1: that suggests you have some monocum of skill or maybe
26:23
Speaker 1: my skill so bad that's why I have tennis elbow.
26:26
Speaker 1: But anyway, Ben gave me this this like basically little
26:30
Speaker 1: electro shock, saying that your warm and it shocks it.
26:34
Speaker 1: And and I'm not sure if it actually helps or
26:37
Speaker 1: if he's just screwing with me and wants to see
26:39
Speaker 1: how frequently shot myself. But I'm doing it regularly and
26:42
Speaker 1: I will confess it is actually helping. So that is
26:47
Speaker 1: that's been an interesting experience as well. I stated a
26:50
Speaker 1: holiday and Express last night. Senator, Hey, you know, give
26:53
Speaker 1: you electroid shock afterwards, there's gonna be some physical therapist
26:56
Speaker 1: out there. Isn't gonna be yelling at the at their
26:58
Speaker 1: phone right now, going do it, Senator. It's a Tensis machine.
27:01
Speaker 1: Do it. It'll work. So yeah, you're gonna now you're
27:03
Speaker 1: gonna get filled with tweets coming to you on advice
27:06
Speaker 1: on how to do it. Well, I will confess it.
27:10
Speaker 1: It has made it made it sell a little bit better. Good.
27:13
Speaker 1: That's what That's what I like to hear. I want
27:16
Speaker 1: to ask you about some of the big news of
27:18
Speaker 1: the day that I that I think is shocking. There
27:23
Speaker 1: is some new audio that has been released on Hunter Biden,
27:28
Speaker 1: and it is shocking audio of Hunter begging for cash
27:33
Speaker 1: to go, claiming it's for rehab. He is begging his
27:40
Speaker 1: brother's widow who he ended up dating, hooking up with
27:44
Speaker 1: whatever after his brother died, begging her for points reward
27:50
Speaker 1: points from a credit card as he's claiming he's going
27:54
Speaker 1: to check and a rehab and send her. When I
27:56
Speaker 1: listened to this and this just came out, there was
27:59
Speaker 1: two things that shocked me. One, I genuinely have compassion
28:02
Speaker 1: and feel bad for Hunter Biden because it's obvious he's
28:06
Speaker 1: an addict. He's addicted, and this is right around the time,
28:09
Speaker 1: just weeks before his gun purchase. But there was something
28:13
Speaker 1: else in this audio that I think was so disturbing
28:15
Speaker 1: to me, and that is at one point, well, he's
28:19
Speaker 1: begging her for these points, and she's like, no, I'll
28:23
Speaker 1: send you to rehab. I'll do it, I'll book your ticket,
28:26
Speaker 1: but I'm not giving you this to you because she
28:28
Speaker 1: knows it's going to be used, I think for drugs,
28:31
Speaker 1: drug abuse. He says, well, give it to my uncle,
28:34
Speaker 1: and then she says no to that, and then he says,
28:37
Speaker 1: well give it to my dad. And it was such
28:41
Speaker 1: an eye opening moment for me that I think just
28:44
Speaker 1: tells you about Joe Biden and James Biden, and the
28:47
Speaker 1: fact that they knew that he was a struggling addict
28:50
Speaker 1: and they exploited it. They sobered him up for the
28:54
Speaker 1: moments they needed him to get the deals done and
28:57
Speaker 1: the corruption and keep the money flowing to their family.
29:00
Speaker 1: I want to play this for you and get your reaction,
29:02
Speaker 1: and I'll do it. No, Honey, I don't want you
29:05
Speaker 1: to know where I'm going. It's very important that if
29:08
Speaker 1: you want, you won't give me my money. Honey, Holly,
29:11
Speaker 1: please give the money. I mean, it's just points. I'm
29:14
Speaker 1: not even asking pose. I'm asking you from my point
29:17
Speaker 1: care you don't care. I will do it all, okay, here,
29:21
Speaker 1: how about this? Not you? Okay? You give it to No, No,
29:26
Speaker 1: give it to my Give it to my uncle, Jimmy. No,
29:29
Speaker 1: give it to my uncle, Jimmy. What's the difference now? Why?
29:31
Speaker 1: I don't care. I'll do it. Give it to my dad.
29:33
Speaker 1: You're not using it. Give it to my dad. It's
29:35
Speaker 1: really important to me that you don't know. Give it
29:37
Speaker 1: to my dad. I figure a place either wise, don't
29:41
Speaker 1: ask me again. I can't pay for the place. Other wise,
29:44
Speaker 1: you're killing Why are you doing this? No? Center, you
29:48
Speaker 1: hear that and I have it made me sad. If
29:50
Speaker 1: you've ever known somebody that's become addicted to drugs, whether
29:54
Speaker 1: it's illegal drugs like this or prescription drugs, I have
29:58
Speaker 1: compassion for people are struggling. And I hear that, and
30:02
Speaker 1: he basically is saying, send it to my uncle, and
30:05
Speaker 1: she says no, because she obviously doesn't trust certain the uncle.
30:09
Speaker 1: And then he says, give it to my dad, And
30:10
Speaker 1: she doesn't even trust her own father in law to
30:13
Speaker 1: do the right thing and to actually make him go
30:16
Speaker 1: back to rehab instead of just giving him access to
30:18
Speaker 1: what you know, his next fix. Here. I've never felt
30:22
Speaker 1: more compassion for him as a human being than this
30:25
Speaker 1: tape that just came out. Yeah, look, that's that's really
30:28
Speaker 1: hard to listen to. That. That's someone who is clearly hurting,
30:32
Speaker 1: clearly is led, and is living a very troubled life.
30:37
Speaker 1: He's an addict, and and all of us have known
30:41
Speaker 1: addicts in our lives. My older sister, Marian tragically died
30:45
Speaker 1: of an overdose, and addiction is a cruel and horrific disease,
30:54
Speaker 1: and he's clearly in the throes of it, the desperation
30:57
Speaker 1: in his voice, and he one who's had loved ones
31:02
Speaker 1: dealing with this has heard that desperation before. I'll tell you.
31:05
Speaker 1: Listening to it, what it reminded me of was was
31:08
Speaker 1: Rayleiota's character and Goodfellows when he was an addict and
31:12
Speaker 1: he's begging his wife again. It was the same same
31:16
Speaker 1: back and forth of begging his wife and the panic.
31:20
Speaker 1: But you're right that it also illustrates that that is
31:23
Speaker 1: his wife believes that that neither his uncle nor his
31:26
Speaker 1: father are going to do anything about it, That that
31:29
Speaker 1: you couldn't trust giving the points or given the money
31:32
Speaker 1: to Dad, that they wouldn't just turn around. And presumably
31:36
Speaker 1: at least you know, you you infer from listening to
31:39
Speaker 1: that that that she thinks they're going to give it
31:42
Speaker 1: to him and let him buy drugs with it rather
31:44
Speaker 1: than ensure that he gets in rehab. And that you know, Look,
31:50
Speaker 1: if if Hunter Biden were Hunter Jones or Hunter Smith,
31:55
Speaker 1: he would be someone who had a very troubled life
31:57
Speaker 1: and and and you would want to see him get help,
32:00
Speaker 1: But it wouldn't be news his conversation. Conversations like this
32:06
Speaker 1: wouldn't be talked about. What's different is his father's president
32:10
Speaker 1: of the United States, and the evidence that has come
32:14
Speaker 1: out of number one, his father, his father's official position
32:21
Speaker 1: being used essentially to immunize him from the crimes that
32:25
Speaker 1: he's committing. But number two, the very significant evidence of
32:30
Speaker 1: his father being directly involved in corruption makes it a
32:36
Speaker 1: matter not just of a private son who is struggling
32:40
Speaker 1: with addiction, but of a question of public corruption that
32:45
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, this has never been
32:47
Speaker 1: about Hunter Biden. This is about Joe Biden. This is
32:50
Speaker 1: about the president and what he's willing to do, and
32:54
Speaker 1: those questions. You know, I think that that recording only
32:59
Speaker 1: ample by those questions. You know, it's amazing how they're
33:02
Speaker 1: trying to act like Hunter Biden's business dealings can be
33:06
Speaker 1: separated from his father and his uncle and the big
33:11
Speaker 1: guy getting ten percent. You know, I part of my background.
33:14
Speaker 1: I own a gun range and a gun store and
33:16
Speaker 1: a barbecue restaurant. And if my dad was, you know,
33:19
Speaker 1: giving a massive government contract to my gun range right
33:23
Speaker 1: for law enforcement, that's a conflict of interest and that
33:28
Speaker 1: obviously would be a massive problem. I know that right
33:31
Speaker 1: at the basic level. Yet NBC News Today came out
33:36
Speaker 1: and said, well, there's nothing wrong, nothing illegal with Hunter
33:40
Speaker 1: Biden taking money from foreign governments, acting like immediately that
33:45
Speaker 1: that's a closed case. I want you to hear this.
33:47
Speaker 1: This was on MSNBC, their NBC reporter saying this earlier.
33:52
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people who evade taxes or never
33:54
Speaker 1: prosecuted criminally, so that's going to be a big issue
33:57
Speaker 1: in this case in terms of like corruptionplic of interest.
34:00
Speaker 1: We've never heard a hint that that was that there
34:03
Speaker 1: were potential criminal charges there. Because under Biden wasn't an officeholder,
34:08
Speaker 1: it was perfectly legal for him to take money from
34:10
Speaker 1: foreign governments as long as it wasn't he wasn't inappropriately
34:14
Speaker 1: giving them information from his family or something. There's no
34:17
Speaker 1: hint of that. There's no hint of that. I mean,
34:20
Speaker 1: NBC News looks at you in a straight face and
34:23
Speaker 1: you've seen it. You've seen all the data that's come out,
34:26
Speaker 1: you've seen just all the suspicious activity reports on their
34:30
Speaker 1: bank accounts, and they say, in their actual words, there's
34:35
Speaker 1: nothing here, there's nothing that says that any of this
34:38
Speaker 1: was nefarious. And they say it with a straight face.
34:40
Speaker 1: And I think that's what worries so many Americans is
34:42
Speaker 1: they truly believe, Oh my gosh, they're gonna get away
34:46
Speaker 1: with this. I mean, if they just nail Hunter Biden
34:48
Speaker 1: with tax issues and they just nail with a gun issue,
34:51
Speaker 1: those are technically the two issues, Senator that you probably
34:55
Speaker 1: cannot connect to his father and all the other stuff
34:59
Speaker 1: that they act did is that they should be charging
35:02
Speaker 1: him with. If they don't, then he's going to basically
35:04
Speaker 1: walk away with a slap on the wrist with the alibi.
35:07
Speaker 1: And I think it's clear as a family knew it. Well,
35:09
Speaker 1: we can say it's a drug addict, so you shouldn't
35:11
Speaker 1: be hard on him. Yeah. Look, the obviously DJ is
35:16
Speaker 1: leaking like a sieve right now and projecting that they
35:20
Speaker 1: are going to in nit Hunter Biden on a tax
35:24
Speaker 1: claim at a gun plant charged those are I'm glad
35:30
Speaker 1: to see it on one side, and in that the
35:32
Speaker 1: laws should be blind and the fact that his daddy
35:34
Speaker 1: happens to live in government housing on Pennsylvania Avenue should
35:38
Speaker 1: not give him a get out of jail free card
35:40
Speaker 1: that nobody else has. But it's it's disturbing for the
35:44
Speaker 1: same reason, which is that what they're leaking suggests they're
35:49
Speaker 1: not looking at the corruption. They're not looking at whether
35:52
Speaker 1: the corruption from Ukraine or the corruption from China, and
35:55
Speaker 1: in particular that they're not looking at the connections to
35:58
Speaker 1: his dad. The reason any one should care is because
36:03
Speaker 1: of his father. And you know, the clip you just
36:06
Speaker 1: played for from NBC is truly absurd because takes something
36:11
Speaker 1: like boris mine and every time we talk Barisma, that
36:13
Speaker 1: brings us back to the very beginning of verdict launched
36:16
Speaker 1: on the first day of impeachment, when we talked about
36:18
Speaker 1: Barisa a lot. Hunter Biden was given a job at
36:22
Speaker 1: Barisma where they paid him eighty three thousand dollars every
36:28
Speaker 1: single month. Now, what expertise does he have. He doesn't
36:32
Speaker 1: speak Ukrainian, he doesn't know anything about oil and gas,
36:37
Speaker 1: He has no relevant expertise. He had one qualification and
36:40
Speaker 1: one qualification only, which is that he carried the DNA
36:44
Speaker 1: of being the son of the sitting vice president at
36:47
Speaker 1: the time. And so NBC, well, there's no question of
36:50
Speaker 1: corruption or anything. Really, why does the Ukrainian gas company
36:54
Speaker 1: pay him that money? What are they getting? And by
36:57
Speaker 1: the way, Hunter Biden, his father je Biden, then the
37:00
Speaker 1: vice President, was the point person for the Obama administration
37:04
Speaker 1: on Ukraine, so it was literally bribing essentially the family
37:10
Speaker 1: of the lead US policy person. And I'll tell you
37:13
Speaker 1: one thing to understand. Okay, Look, if you're a foreign government,
37:16
Speaker 1: let's say you're the Ukrainian government. Let's say you're communist China,
37:20
Speaker 1: and you're trying to influence a US decision maker. Now,
37:23
Speaker 1: if you just show up and hand Joe Biden a
37:27
Speaker 1: paper bag full of cash, you could try to do that.
37:30
Speaker 1: But that's a little clunky and a little obvious and transparent.
37:33
Speaker 1: Even the shills at MSNBC might have a hard time
37:38
Speaker 1: explaining that one away. But there's a second way you
37:41
Speaker 1: do it, which is listen the video you played or
37:44
Speaker 1: the audio you played of Hunter talking to his wife.
37:48
Speaker 1: It is clear that Hunter Biden was a financial burden
37:52
Speaker 1: to his entire family. He was a financial burden to
37:54
Speaker 1: his dad. His dad, I am sure, spent hundreds of
37:59
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, trying to
38:03
Speaker 1: take care of his very troubled son. And look, we
38:07
Speaker 1: all respect that you should do what you can to
38:09
Speaker 1: help help your children, especially when they're troubled. But by
38:13
Speaker 1: Barisma giving Hunter Biden eighty three thousand dollars a month,
38:17
Speaker 1: what they did is they took that obligation off of
38:21
Speaker 1: Joe Biden's palace sheets. In other words, he didn't have
38:23
Speaker 1: to support Hunter Biden because lo and behold, the Ukrainians
38:28
Speaker 1: are doing it for him. And then later on in
38:30
Speaker 1: China the private equity deals, and that he didn't China
38:35
Speaker 1: multi billion dollar deals. You've got indications there, including as
38:42
Speaker 1: you noted that the ten percent for the big guy.
38:44
Speaker 1: Let's be clear, the big guy. He is not talking
38:47
Speaker 1: about some of his back It's talking about Joe Biden.
38:51
Speaker 1: And once again it is highly disturbing that DJ it
38:56
Speaker 1: doesn't seem has even the slightest interest in looking anything
39:01
Speaker 1: that could implicate Joe Biden. This is all about finding
39:04
Speaker 1: a fall guy and with an alibi, with an alibi,
39:09
Speaker 1: Phil and I mean, look, you and I both have
39:12
Speaker 1: compassion for Hunter. When you listen to that tape. Don't
39:14
Speaker 1: think that tape's not going to be played if they're
39:16
Speaker 1: in a court, when people are on a jury, A're
39:19
Speaker 1: gonna say this guy, this poor guy's an addict. He's
39:22
Speaker 1: addicted to drugs. Okay, yeah, he broke the law, but
39:24
Speaker 1: maybe we'll give him a little compassion here. That's been
39:27
Speaker 1: their game plan the whole time, even when they brought
39:29
Speaker 1: out Joe's sister when she did the morning show Sunday
39:33
Speaker 1: Morning Show, CBS This Morning or whatever it was several
39:36
Speaker 1: months back. She clearly laid out the plan for the family,
39:40
Speaker 1: and that was he may have done something wrong back
39:43
Speaker 1: in the day, but he was an addict, so it's
39:45
Speaker 1: not his fault. And that's always been the alibi, which
39:48
Speaker 1: meant they could exploit him and get even to do
39:51
Speaker 1: more insane deals. And I think you and I and
39:54
Speaker 1: this is something the American you will have to ask themselves.
39:56
Speaker 1: This Hunter Biden exists as a businessman in any of
39:59
Speaker 1: these capacities, whether it's with you know, Chinese Communist Party
40:02
Speaker 1: and the oil and gas deals with Bob Olenski, the
40:05
Speaker 1: whistle blower about their deals with Russian olagarchs, and the
40:09
Speaker 1: former mayor of Russia's wife giving him millions of dollars
40:13
Speaker 1: with him being a defense attorney for more than a
40:15
Speaker 1: million dollars for a guy that's going to prison and
40:17
Speaker 1: missing in China or Barisma. Does any of that happen,
40:21
Speaker 1: forget his last name, Hunter Biden. Does any of that
40:25
Speaker 1: happen without his father being involved in those deals? I
40:28
Speaker 1: would argue it's impossible to separate Joe Biden and James
40:32
Speaker 1: Biden from any of this. Look, I think that's right,
40:35
Speaker 1: and I think DJ is once again being partisan and political.
40:39
Speaker 1: And what I fear is that this is also being
40:42
Speaker 1: done for a very explicitly partisan purpose, which is that
40:46
Speaker 1: Merrick Garland has decided if we indict Hunter Biden, then
40:51
Speaker 1: he can turn around and indict Donald J. Trump, And
40:54
Speaker 1: I think that is his objective at this point is
40:56
Speaker 1: to say, Gus, we're not political. Look, we indicted THEO
41:00
Speaker 1: who is so plainly guilty and recorded videos of it
41:03
Speaker 1: and put it out to the world, and we could
41:05
Speaker 1: only not indict him if we ignored it. But it's
41:08
Speaker 1: all about having the Look how even handed we are.
41:11
Speaker 1: We're doing both sides for people that are angry, and
41:15
Speaker 1: I would be in this category center you hear this,
41:19
Speaker 1: And if the DOJ doesn't do a special prosecutor, if
41:22
Speaker 1: we don't get real indictments, just these two kind of
41:27
Speaker 1: slap on the risk indictments that insulate the president. What
41:30
Speaker 1: does justice look like if you guys take control of
41:34
Speaker 1: the Senate, if Comber takes control, you know, in the
41:37
Speaker 1: leadership role there in the House, to investigate you know.
41:41
Speaker 1: Congressman Comber said that Hunter Biden quote is a national
41:43
Speaker 1: security threat who may be compromise, who may have compromised
41:47
Speaker 1: the president. And that's what he says. They're going to
41:50
Speaker 1: look out in the House side. But what does justice
41:52
Speaker 1: look like if we don't get these indictments? Can you guys,
41:56
Speaker 1: you know, get a special prosecutor? Or? Is that no?
41:59
Speaker 1: Because the president is Joe Biden. Is there anything that
42:03
Speaker 1: you guys can actually do when you're investigating him to
42:05
Speaker 1: go back and force a DJ or the FBI or
42:08
Speaker 1: law enforcement do their job if they don't do it
42:10
Speaker 1: the first time around. Well, I think the election matters
42:13
Speaker 1: powerfully because having a majority gives you the ability to
42:17
Speaker 1: then convene hearings, and those hearings there has been essentially
42:22
Speaker 1: zero oversight of the Biden administration. With Democrats in charge
42:25
Speaker 1: of Congress. They put partisan politics above everything else, so
42:29
Speaker 1: they don't want to know the answers to any of
42:30
Speaker 1: these things. I think we are extremely likely to see
42:33
Speaker 1: a Republican House, and I think there's a good chance
42:35
Speaker 1: we'll see a Republican Senate. If and when that happens,
42:38
Speaker 1: I think we will see I hope and believe vigorous
42:43
Speaker 1: hearings examining all sorts of issues. The corruption, the corruption
42:48
Speaker 1: going straight to the top, Joe Biden, his involvement in it,
42:52
Speaker 1: doctor Fauci, the origins of COVID, the Wuhan Institute of Virology,
42:59
Speaker 1: the ding from the NIH forgative function research, all of that,
43:04
Speaker 1: The involvement with Big Pharma in the administration's policy, the
43:09
Speaker 1: involvement with the teachers unions in the administration's in defensible policies.
43:14
Speaker 1: There are so many topics that are screening for oversight.
43:17
Speaker 1: I think we will see hearings on every one of
43:20
Speaker 1: those topics. Those hearings may involve subpoenas if witnesses refuse
43:24
Speaker 1: to attend. Having the majority means you can issue subpoenas
43:27
Speaker 1: and use legal compulsion to make witnesses attend. You can
43:32
Speaker 1: have lawyers who engage the investigations. But you asked, can
43:36
Speaker 1: Congress appoint a special prosecutor? And the answer to that
43:39
Speaker 1: is no. Under our constitution, we have separation of powers
43:44
Speaker 1: and only the executive can execute the laws. So the
43:48
Speaker 1: questions of prosecution, it is only article to the President
43:53
Speaker 1: the Attorney General that have the authority to indict anyone
43:57
Speaker 1: to prosecute anyone to bring a case risk. The legislature
44:01
Speaker 1: can pass laws that need the President's signature to become law,
44:07
Speaker 1: and Congress can hold hearings and shine a light. So
44:11
Speaker 1: I had been calling for two years for a special
44:13
Speaker 1: prosecutor to look at Hunter Biden, for a special prosecutor
44:16
Speaker 1: to look at Anthony Fauci. This administration lasts that off.
44:20
Speaker 1: They don't care that they are going to be corrupt
44:24
Speaker 1: and political, and they do not care with the majority.
44:28
Speaker 1: What the hearings can do is shine a light and
44:30
Speaker 1: put pressure. But at the end of the day, the
44:35
Speaker 1: only person with the authority to appoint a special prosecutor
44:39
Speaker 1: is the Attorney General of the United States. And so
44:42
Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons why I believe one of
44:44
Speaker 1: the first orders of business should be impeaching Merrick Garland.
44:48
Speaker 1: The degree to which he has turned J into a
44:51
Speaker 1: partisan nest of hornets, working on behalf of the White House,
44:58
Speaker 1: working on behalf of the dn SEE, I think has
45:01
Speaker 1: profoundly compromised the integrity as a partment of Justice and
45:05
Speaker 1: the FBI, And as an alumnus I worked at the
45:08
Speaker 1: DOJ in two thousand and one, that is both very sad,
45:14
Speaker 1: but it's also incredibly dangerous. I want to switch gears
45:17
Speaker 1: real quick before we run out of time today to
45:20
Speaker 1: gas prices. Senator JP Morgan CEO came out earlier today
45:26
Speaker 1: in an interview and he said this about American oil production,
45:30
Speaker 1: as he also said we're headed into a recession if
45:33
Speaker 1: we're not already there. That obviously made a Wall Street
45:36
Speaker 1: perk up. But I want you to hear what he
45:38
Speaker 1: had to say about America with oil production. America needs
45:42
Speaker 1: to play a real leadership role. America is the swing producer,
45:45
Speaker 1: not Saudi Arabia. And we should have gotten that right
45:49
Speaker 1: story in March. It's almost too late to get it
45:51
Speaker 1: right because obviously there's the longer term investments. America needs
45:55
Speaker 1: to play a real leadership role. You rarely see CEOs
45:58
Speaker 1: come out in this way, and this happens, and you
46:01
Speaker 1: tweeted this out. Valerio has now fired back with facts
46:05
Speaker 1: after the California government is going to investigate oil and
46:10
Speaker 1: gas companies for the gas price spikes there that are
46:13
Speaker 1: hitting seven eight dollars a gallon in some parts of
46:16
Speaker 1: California because the California Energy Commission, and obviously this is political.
46:20
Speaker 1: Right before the elections, wrote executives at five oil and
46:25
Speaker 1: gas companies Centerer, demanding answers for sharp price increases, and
46:30
Speaker 1: basically the vice president for state government affairs at Valerio said, Okay,
46:35
Speaker 1: you want to know what's happening, Fine, we'll tell everybody.
46:39
Speaker 1: He said, California, for Valero, is the most expensive operating
46:43
Speaker 1: environment in the country and quota very hostile regulatory environment
46:48
Speaker 1: for refining. He also said California policymakers have knowingly adopted
46:54
Speaker 1: policies with the express intent of eliminating the refinery sector.
47:00
Speaker 1: Valero said California requires refiners to pay very high carbon
47:04
Speaker 1: cap and trade fees and burden gasoline with a cost
47:08
Speaker 1: of low carbon fuel standards, saying, quote, with the backdrop
47:11
Speaker 1: of these policies, not surprisingly, California has seen refineries completely
47:17
Speaker 1: closed or shut down major units. And he said when
47:20
Speaker 1: you shut down refinery operations, you limit the resilience of
47:24
Speaker 1: the supply chain, saying, don't blame us for this. You
47:28
Speaker 1: guys have isolated this market. You guys have destroyed this market.
47:32
Speaker 1: You guys have made us to produce a unique blend
47:34
Speaker 1: of gasoline, and now you want to investigate us while
47:37
Speaker 1: you set up this entire thing. You're I'm glad finally
47:41
Speaker 1: some companies are speaking out like this. I think it's
47:44
Speaker 1: really important to see companies pushing back. You know. The
47:47
Speaker 1: letter continues and it goes right out the California regulators.
47:50
Speaker 1: In the letters from Valero, says, quote from the perspective
47:53
Speaker 1: of a refiner and fuel supplier, California is the most
47:57
Speaker 1: challenging market to serve in the United States for several
48:00
Speaker 1: additional reasons. California regulators have mandated a unique blend of
48:04
Speaker 1: gasoline that is not readily available outside of the West Coast.
48:09
Speaker 1: California is largely isolated from fuel markets of the Central
48:13
Speaker 1: and eastern United States. California has imposed some of the
48:16
Speaker 1: most aggressive and thus expensive and limited environmental regulatory requirements
48:22
Speaker 1: in the world. California policies have made it difficult to
48:25
Speaker 1: increase refining capacity and it prevented supply projects to lower
48:31
Speaker 1: operating costs of refineries. It is a great example of
48:35
Speaker 1: just responding with facts, and this is we're seeing this
48:39
Speaker 1: nationally with the radicals, the Green New dealal radicals and
48:44
Speaker 1: the Biden administration, and California is the Wuhan virus epicenter
48:52
Speaker 1: of the craziness that is in the Biden administration. All
48:56
Speaker 1: of these nutty ideas originated in California, with the crazies there.
49:02
Speaker 1: It is the reason people are fleeing California in droves.
49:06
Speaker 1: But when it comes to energy, the reason gas prices
49:10
Speaker 1: are so high nationally five dollars, six dollars, even seven
49:14
Speaker 1: dollars a gallon is because Joe Biden and the people
49:17
Speaker 1: he appointed want gas prices to be high. They promised
49:21
Speaker 1: Joe Biden on the campaign trail, promised that he would
49:25
Speaker 1: end drilling on federal lands, both onshore and offshore, and
49:28
Speaker 1: they have bent over backwards trying to do that. They
49:31
Speaker 1: have put in place dozens of rules and regulations and
49:35
Speaker 1: policies designed to make it harder to develop oil and
49:40
Speaker 1: gas in the United States. They shut down the Keystone Pipeline,
49:43
Speaker 1: They shut down exploration in anwar the incredibly resource rich,
49:47
Speaker 1: very small section of Alaska. They shut down new leases
49:51
Speaker 1: in offshore drilling where they're vast reserves. In the Golf
49:54
Speaker 1: of Mexico. They're not giving new leases there. They are
49:57
Speaker 1: not granting permits for pipelines, they're not granting hermits for refineries.
50:01
Speaker 1: And not only that they're cutting off the funds to
50:06
Speaker 1: pay for exploration. They're two avenues. To fund a new
50:10
Speaker 1: exploration project, you'd neither have debt or equity. The Biden
50:16
Speaker 1: banking regulators are hammering banks not to lend oil and
50:20
Speaker 1: gas projects. And on the equity side, the Biden appointeeds
50:24
Speaker 1: to the SEC are hammering hammering efforts to raise equity
50:31
Speaker 1: to fund that. Also, if you have no capital, you
50:33
Speaker 1: can't drill. And so what's happening. The bad guys are
50:36
Speaker 1: getting rich. Russia's getting rich, or Rand's getting rich. Venezuela
50:40
Speaker 1: is getting rich because they're producing and by the way,
50:43
Speaker 1: they pollute a lot more than America does. So so
50:46
Speaker 1: the Biden zealots are shutting down are hurting the environment
50:49
Speaker 1: at the same time. And as bad as all of
50:51
Speaker 1: that is, California takes all of that and does it
50:54
Speaker 1: on steroids. So when you pay seven bucks a gallon
50:58
Speaker 1: in California, I guess you could be grateful, because in
51:01
Speaker 1: a year they want you to pay ten bucks a gallon.
51:03
Speaker 1: And it's this is the direct result of policies passed
51:08
Speaker 1: by people who don't give a damn about your life.
51:13
Speaker 1: They don't care about your kids, They don't care about
51:16
Speaker 1: working people being unable to afford to get to work
51:18
Speaker 1: or get to school. This is a religion for them,
51:22
Speaker 1: and the consequences of their policy that's for little people
51:26
Speaker 1: to worry about. It doesn't trouble their pretty little hits. Senator,
51:30
Speaker 1: we're often running with Verdict. As I said earlier, I'm
51:33
Speaker 1: looking really forward to doing this with you three days
51:36
Speaker 1: a week. It's going to be fun for everybody listening.
51:39
Speaker 1: I will say it every time. Make sure you hit
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51:55
Speaker 1: write us a review, and Senator, it's going to be
51:57
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. It's an honor to get spend
51:59
Speaker 1: time with you talking about these issues. And this is
52:02
Speaker 1: gonna be, as I said, a exciting expansion with premiere
52:07
Speaker 1: with iHeart and exciting expansion to do this three days
52:10
Speaker 1: a week. And I can't tell you how excited I
52:12
Speaker 1: am personally. We're gonna have a lot of fun. It's
52:15
Speaker 1: gonna be a blast. That's it for this edition of
52:17
Speaker 1: Verdict with tech CRUs we'll see you back here literally
52:20
Speaker 1: in a couple of days.